List of Indian Army Generals Manoj Mukund Naravane is the current General of the Indian Army or Chief of the Army Staff (COAS), who took over the office of the COAS on 31st December 2019. The Indian Army is the largest standing army in the world, with 1,237,117 active troops and 960,000 reserve troops. The precursor of the Indian Army was the British Indian Army founded on April 1st 1895. It took its current form on 15th January 1949 when Field Marshal Kodandera M. Cariappa's took over as the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army from General Sir Francis Butcher, the last British Commander-in-Chief of India. The office of the Chief of the Army Staff was created through The Commanders-In-Chief (Change in Designation) Act of the Indian Parliament in 1955. It replaced the erstwhile office of the Commander-in-Chief, Army. The office is based at South Block of the Central Secretariat at Raisina Hill, New Delhi. The Chief of the Army Staff of India is the operational head and highest-ranking officer of the Indian Army. The position is always held by a full General. As the most senior officer to serve in the Indian Army, the Chief of the Army Staff is a military adviser to the Government of the Republic of India and the Ministry of Defence. There have been 3 Commander-in-Chief and 27 Chief of Army Staff in the Indian Army to date. This article lists the Chief of the Army Staff of the Indian Army since 1947. The information from this article will be useful in the Civil Services Examination List of Chief of Army Staff (1947 - 2020) An exhaustive list of the Chief of Army Staff as well as their precursor, Commander-in-Chief are given in the table(s) below: List of Indian Army Generals - Chief of Army Staff Name Rank Tenure Unit of Commission General Francis Commander-in-Chief 21 June 1948 - 15 Scottish Rifles Robert Roy Bucher January 1949 Field Marshal Commander-in-Chief 16 January 1949 - 14 Rajput Rifles Kodandera Madappa January 1953 Cariappa General Maharaj Commander-in-Chief 14 January 1953 - 1 2nd Lancers Rajendrasinhji Jadeja April 1955 (Gardner’s Horse) General Maharaj Chief of Army Staff 1 April 1955 - 14 May 2nd Lancers Rajendrasinhji Jadeja 1955 (Gardner’s Horse) General Satyawant Chief of Army Staff 15 May 1955 - 7 May 19th Hyderabad Mallana Sringesh 1957 Regiment General Kodandera Chief of Army Staff 8 May 1957 - 7 May 19th Hyderabad Subayya Thimayya 1961 Regiment General Pran Nath Chief of Army Staff 8 May 1961 - 19 1st Punjab Regiment Thapar November 1962 General Jayanto Chief of Army Staff 20 November 1962 - 7th Light Cavalry Nath Chaudhuri 7 June 1966 General Paramasiva Chief of Army Staff 8 June 1966 - 7 June Regiment of Artillery Prabhakar 1969 Kumaramangalam Field Marshal Sam Chief of Army Staff 8 June 1969 - 15 12th Frontier Force Hormusji Framji January 1973 Regiment Jamshedji Manekshaw General Gopal Chief of Army Staff 16 January 1973 - 31 Dogra Regiment Gurunath Bewoor May 1975 General Tapishwar Chief of Army Staff 1 June 1975 - 31 May Kumaon Regiment Narain Raina 1978 General Om Prakash Chief of Army Staff 1 June 1978 - 31 May Regiment of Artillery Malhotra 1981 General Kotikalapudi Chief of Army Staff 1 June 1981 - 31 July Mahar Regiment Venkata Krishna Rao 1983 General Arun Kumar Chief of Army Staff 1 August 1983 - 31 9th Deccan Horse Shridhar Vaidya January 1986 General Chief of Army Staff 1 February 1986 - 31 Mahar Regiment Krishnaswamy May 1988 Sundarji General Ashwa Nath Chief of Army Staff 1 June 1988 - 30 16th Light Cavalry Sharma June 1990 General Sunith Chief of Army Staff 1 July 1990 - 30 June Regiment of Artillery Francis Rodrigues 1993 General Bipin Chief of Army Staff 1 July 1993 - 19 64th Cavalry Chandra Joshi November 1994 General Shankar Roy Chief of Army Staff 20 November 1994 - 20th Lancers Chowdhary 30 September 1997 General Ved Prakash Chief of Army Staff 1 October 1997 - 30 Sikh Light Infantry Malik September 2000 General Sundarajan Chief of Army Staff 1 October 2000 - 31 Regiment of Artillery Padmanabhan December 2002 General Nirmal Chief of Army Staff 1 January 2003 - 31 Dogra Regiment Chander Vij January 2005 General Joginder Chief of Army Staff 1 February 2005 - 30 Maratha Light Jaswant Singh September 2007 Infantry General Deepak Chief of Army Staff 1 October 2007 - 31 Regiment of Artillery Kapoor March 2010 General Vijay Kumar Chief of Army Staff 1 April 2010 - 31 May Rajput Regiment Singh 2012 General Bikram Chief of Army Staff 1 June 2012 - 31 July Sikh Light Infantry Singh 2014 General Balbir Singh Chief of Army Staff 1 August 2014 - 31 5 Gorkha Rifles Suhag December 2016 General Bipin Rawat Chief of Army Staff 31 December 2016 - 11 Gorkha Rifles 31 December 2019 General Manoj Chief of Army Staff 31 December 2019 - 7 Sikh Light Infantry Mukund Naravane Present .